Author: Ash Navabi

I'm senior economist at Housing Matters, a Toronto-based not-for-profit YIMBY group. In addition to housing policy, I also like to read and write about intellectual property, money & banking, and methodology. Other random things I'm interested in include space, physics, 3D printing, entrepreneurship, the English language, and internet culture.

War is not Peaceful

Originally posted on mises.ca on July 24, 2011

In the wake of the senseless, monstrous, and completely unjustified attacks that have claimed (so far) over 90 innocent people in Norway, many of them teenagers, there has been a rather disturbing trend in the media’s coverage of the events: to describe Norway as a ‘peaceful country’, or presenting people who express that view unchallenged:

For instance, the Globe and Mail quotes Hillary Clinton in its lead story on Saturday: “This tragedy strikes right at the heart of the soul of a peaceful people”. And from its Saturday Editorial: “For decades Norway has done far more than its share in spreading goodwill around the world. […] The world owes a debt of gratitude to Norway.”

Here is also the Toronto Star, in an article trying to determine the cause of the attacks: “If there were a peace capital of the world, it would be Norway.”

Others, including the National Post and the Toronto Sun (not to mention international media), are also equally surprised that anyone could have targeted Norway for any reason. But is this sheer and utter bewilderment at all justified? Continue reading “War is not Peaceful” →

Prices, Price Ceilings, and Subsidies

Originally posted at mises.ca on May 3, 2011

There’s an old saying that if you lay all the economists in the world in a straight line, you still wouldn’t reach a conclusion. That is very true on many matters economic, but there are a few instances where universal agreement exists. Two of those instances are the effects of price ceilings and subsidies. However, many economists still deny that specific price ceiling and subsidies will be harmful, because… well they never really say. Sometimes they point to an empirical study for “proof”, but for every empirical study proving one thing, there is another one that proves the exact opposite. So we must rely upon theoretical and analytical tools, to obtain logical answers to difficult and intertwined phenomena. Here we’ll examine the role of prices in the economy, and how their manipulation never has the effect intended. Continue reading “Prices, Price Ceilings, and Subsidies” →